Sunday, October 29, 2006

News Coverage in Union Publications

From New York Academe's Fall issue, the publication of the New York chapter of the AAUP (while Nerds just received this recently, it is clear it is slightly out-of-date, or maybe not based on the best reporting and editing):

The NYU Graduate Student Strike Update: Press States the Strike is Over

Press reports indicate that the strike by graduate student teaching assistants opposed to New York University's decision not to negotiate a new contract with their union has come to an end without the completion of a new collective bargaining agreement.

The student members of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee, who had been affiliated with Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers, struck on November 9, 2005.The University, which had recognized the union in 2002, decided during the summer of 2005 not to negotiate a new contract after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had reversed an earlier decision and held that teaching assistants at private universities were not employees under the National Labor Relations Act.

While the strike has not officially been terminated (there is no mention of the strike's current status on the union website), the Washington Square News reported that virtually all teaching assistants, including the leaders of the strike, are teaching this semester.

The graduate students have been supported by a number of NYU faculty, many of whom formed a group called Faculty Democracy, which has developed a broad agenday that includes a broader role for faculty in university governance and prioroties.Support also came from many local politicians and union leaders. AAUP President Cary Nelson and Jane Buck, his immediate predecessor, were both arrested as part of a protest supporting the striking students.

While the strike has ended, efforts to pressure the NYU administration hto recognize the union have not. Graduate Student Organizing Committee head, Michael Palm, in an interview with insidehighered.com, said that, "We don't know exactly what our next move will be yet...But it's clear that the UAW is here to stay."

For more on the strike, go to the Union's website: www.2110uaw.org. or Faculty Democracy's website: www.facultydemocracy.org.

The October 2006 issue of The Clarion, the newspaper of PSC-CUNY, also has an article on the end of the strike--but that one is much better. It focuses on the role of retaliation, the successes we had in the petition campaign in the spring, and the tactical decision-making process.